'We Have To Perform Better'

Colin Calderwood today said Nottingham Forest must not use Blackpool's controversial late penalty as an excuse for their failure to win, insisting: 'We must do better.'

The Reds looked on course for a 1-0 victory until the 88th minute, when referee Gary Sutton pointed to the spot when Wes Hoolahan went down rather easily under Wes Morgan's challenge, with the winger regaining his feet to net the leveller.

But, while he was furious with the decision, Calderwood admitted Forest only had themselves to blame, after again failing to find top gear against a Blackpool side who demonstrated more attacking ambition.

And, while he admitted Forest felt a sense of injustice, Calderwood said they must focus on improving their own performance levels, rather than blaming anyone else.

'The nature of the last couple of minutes leaves us with a feeling of injustice. But we have to do better to make sure that decisions like that do not affect us,' he said.

'That is what we have to look at tonight. We have to perform better to make sure that we are in a position where decisions like that do not matter.

'We must look for an improvement in ourselves then hopefully the rest takes care of itself.

'We have worked our socks off, but we had to. We had to defend and defend and defend, because Blackpool took the ball and had numerous shots and efforts,

'They got into dangerous areas, which is concerning. But we headed enough, we cleared enough, we looked as though we did enough - but we haven't got the victory.

'We have to do better. We cannot just think about hanging on and just being 1-0 winners. That means being better with the ball, particularly in the second half. We needed more of a threat.

'They left people out of the game when we attacked and they looked very dangerous on the break.

'It was an important lesson for us to learn. It is no problem winning 1-0, as we know. But because we have not done that tonight, because we have not made it 2-0, the importance of it is there for everyone to see.'

Calderwood was concerned with Forest's lack of attacking threat, with Junior Agogo's first-half strike coming from one of few real chances they carved out.

'We have got to look as if we have a threat going forward,' he said. 'When we had a corner we always looked dangerous - but we didn't get the ball in the right areas to get a corner.

'A lot of credit to them though, they were brave on the ball in difficult conditions.

'We have taken a point, that is better than Oldham have done in the last two games and a point feels a little bit better than we did on Saturday.

'We could have been buoyed by three points tonight, then we could have worried about how we improve ourselves after a victory.

'Now we have to work out how we do it from a draw.

'We have to go and conjure a victory at Chesterfield.'

Nottingham Evening Post

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